Long ago, the world was nothing but a place full of depravity, trapped in the era that was known as “The Dark Ages”. Seeing this, the Heavens appointed a messianic figure to lead the world to its righteous path, granting her with unparalleled ability in magic and wisdom which no other man can withstand without breaking down from its sheer mightiness.

Her name was Viatrix Codris.

From the beginning of her ascension as the apostle from the Heavens to the day she died, Viatrix led humanity to the path of enlightenment through wisdom after wisdom. Deemed as the hero and savior of mankind, people worshipped her and established a religion after her - the Orthodoxy. And thus, with the order restored to the world, humanity entered its golden age of peace and prosperity.

However, perhaps it was already a nature in many hero’s tale to end in tragedy. Alas, Viatrix was one of those heroes doomed with such unfortunate fate.

Her fame as a hero, she paid it with her severely shortened lifespan, for no human should have been able to perform the heavenly miracles like she had done. Knowing that her death was near, she proposed to let her knowledge to live on by transferring it into another medium, hoping that her knowledge would allow mankind to continue to prosper and live in peace even after she was long gone.

However, the Heavens refused. Viatrix was a woman of unparalleled wisdom - a true sage and woman of the Gods. However, no one else had been able to match her strength to wield such wisdom, both physically and mentally. Viatrix may had won the Gods’ trust, but they were above granting the same trust to the rest of humanity, seeing their past records of depravity.

And yet, Viatrix’s resolve didn’t waver. Her love for her people too great. Too great that it ultimately led to her downfall and nullifying most of her hard work to bring peace into the world, in fact.

Angered at her supposed ignorance, the Heavens decided to forsake and punish her for what they considered the arrogance of mankind. Her knowledge shall forever became cursed, and her name and spirit shall forever belong to the dark side of history.

Finally, the day that Viatrix had known would be her last finally came. Surrounded by the innermost circle of her followers, they began to perform the to transfer her entire wisdom and knowledge to a certain relic - a crystal supposedly emanating a divinely light that was later remembered after her name.

However, the Heavens would absolutely have none of it. They sent one of the angels to deliver the divine punishment they believed the sage well-deserved - that is, by cursing the crystal so it shall lead mankind to nothing but to ruin. Said ruin started from the wise sage herself; when she was about to finish the ritual, the angel overloaded the crystal with immeasurable energy that it ended up both destroying itself and at least half of the people present in the ritual, engulfing them in flames akin to hellfire. Upon seeing the spreading destruction in front of her, Viatrix tried to perform a miracle one last time with her dying breath to stop the flame and subside the curse, although in the end, she only managed to succeed partially.

Alas, her final sacrifice was met with nothing but scorn. Realizing that the woman of miracle had been forsaken by the Gods, the surviving members of the ritual immediately branded her as a heretic. It was unknown what happened to her body afterwards; some say the enraged members of the Orthodoxy threw her body away into nowhere out of belief that a heretic did not deserve to rest in peace, while some other believed her body assimilated into the alleged shards of the crystal where she sealed her knowledge in.

And yet, Viatrix’s standing in history wasn’t full of blame. Even despite everything that had happened, many of her followers believed in her until the very end to the point of dedicating themselves to restore her name and legacy. However, as long as the Heavens themselves haven’t forgiven her, it seems that it will still be a long way before they can achieve their goal.

And thus ended the tale of the Holy Mother of Wisdom. All because of her unparalleled love for her people, her last moments had her forsaken by the Heavens, betrayed by many of her once loyal followers, and the very peace she had worked hard to brought crumbling apart along with her body. Yet like many heroes in history, there will always be people who will fight their hardest for the legacy she had left behind.

Only time will tell whether she would finally get the closure she deserved...

LASCANTIA

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The Sky Gate. It's a secluded floating island located far above the open waters between the three major continents - even higher than the floating lands in Kuon region. Despite its small size, above it stands the ruins of the ancient civilization with peculiar massive gate blocking the access to its interior. Legend has it that the gate leads to the plane beyond the sky itself, Lascantia.

The Holy Mother of Knowledge. The divine figure that met its tragic end by the very same beings entrusted her with the heavenly knowledge in order to lead mankind to its enlightenment. Nowadays, her standing in history was controversial at best - some believed she is a heretic for going against the Gods despite her intentions, while others see her as a tragic messianic figure unjustly punished by the divine beings.

Pure, selfless, full of love, and yet wise beyond even the wisest men of this era could imagine, Viatrix was the epitome of messianic figure. She was specifically chosen by the Heavens because of her unusual quality that allowed her to withstand the godly powers granted to her both physically and mentally. However, how she managed to possess such power was beyond mystery, especially since she allegedly looked no different from any ordinary, unassuming girl from the outside.

Because of her wisdom, Viatrix understood very well the limits of her knowledge; she was aware that she was not omniscient and that some things would remain forever unknown to her. It was said that she could’ve gained accessed a much higher degree of knowledge with the privilege granted to her, and yet, she chose not to, stating that it would only “destroy herself”.

THE SHARDS OF CODRIS

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In a desperate attempt to let her knowledge to live on so mankind can continue to prosper, Viatrix used her last remaining strength to plant her knowledge inside a divine crystal supposedly taken from the “origin of all knowledge”. However, because the ritual was botched by the Heavens themselves, the crystal became cursed and destroyed both itself along with many people participating in the ritual. It was said that shall the crystal reappear in front of mankind, its mere presence shall bring nothing but ruin as the Heavens’ punishment for mankind’s hubris.

Although it was destroyed during the day of Viatrix’s death, there are plenty of people who believe the crystal survived through its shards, and as such, countless parties have been on hunt of the shards for Heaven knows how long. So far, four notable parties are on the hunt of the shards: the Juilesc Empire, the cult that goes against The Spirit Mother’s teaching in Kuon, various mafias and triads, and the Order of Codris. And shall one of them finally gains any of the shards, it will become a mere matter of time before the world will either be saved and return to its age of prosperity or revert to the age of chaos…

THE ORDER OF CODRIS

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A secret organization formed by the descendants of Viatrix’s most loyal followers, who had made it their mission to retrieve the surviving shards of her knowledge and prevent misuse of it by any ambitioning parties. In addition, they have been fighting endlessly for the restoration of her name in history.

In the past few decades, the birth of the cult that attempts to ‘resurrect’ Viatrix as well as Juilesc Empire’s increasingly aggressive search on the Shards of Codris have made things difficult for the Order, what is it with the espionages attempted on them by the competing parties. And that still doesn’t include those who side with none of them except themselves…

DARK BEASTS

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When Viatrix sensed that her lifespan was about to expire, she decided to pass on her vast knowledge and wisdom by placing them inside a crystal relic. The Heavens warned her that no human after her would be able to wield such vast power. However, Viatrix didn’t listen, and as such, the Heavens decided to forsake and curse her and her knowledge.

It was not like Viatrix was unaware just how dangerous the sheer amount of knowledge she possessed was; after all, if it not for the fact she was fully aware just how destructive the divine knowledge was, she would’ve used the privilege granted on her to access the powers of higher degree than she already had. As such, she devised a plan to ensure the knowledge inside the crystal wouldn’t fall into the hands of the unworthy - that is, by creating a Guardian Spirit that serves to test whoever tries to access the knowledge inside the crystal. How the Guardian Spirit was created and its exact duty, however, was unknown.

Unfortunately, because of the curse placed by the Heavens, the supposedly benevolent yet wise Guardian Spirit became the epitome of malevolence and mankind’s path to destruction from their greed of power. When the crystal was destroyed and became the Shards of Codris, said corrupted being was also separated into numerous entities tied with each shard. Because of their pitch-black appearance, these fragmented entities are only known as “Dark Beasts”.

While numerous observations had shown that the Dark Beasts’ appearance may serve as indicator of the shards’ location, their tendency to go on rampage means they cannot be reliably ‘used’ to pinpoint the shards’ exact location. After all, much remains unknown regarding the Dark Beasts to this day, and no one has acquired any strong proof to deny the possibility of the Beasts’ number being larger than the number of the actual shards...